Blog
Apart from the personal nudges I receive from the Holy Spirit, my wife, Jan, has taught me more about Kingdom finances than anyone else. Perhaps it was because she grew up as the child of missionaries who lived in a foreign land and had to rely on others to support...
Speaking the truth in love is not limited to spiritual issues. It is the responsibility of all believers to speak the truth in love in all aspects of life. To censor the truth no matter how disruptive that truth may be to any earthly institution is a work of the enemy...
Recently, a change took place in my thinking. The change was spurred on by the death of a good friend and my age. As my friend was dying, the Lord gave me a verse to share with him. It was from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to...
Yesterday, the Church all around the world gathered to celebrate Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost was the day when the Spirit came in a sudden and unexpected demonstration of power. I try to examine what takes place after such events. I am not sure God wants us...
You know how it is when you wake up a bit too early in the morning and look at the illuminated clock on your nightstand. You hope you can go back to sleep. This morning, the clock read 3:12 AM here in Oregon. In that waking moment, I saw an interesting...
Each time we perform to feel loved we deform love's beauty. In our performance, we become a slave to a conditional form of false love that Jesus came to set us free from. Performance is subtle. It can masquerade as religious dedication but when you begin to peel...
When a life plan begins to unravel, God knows how to reweave all the disconnected parts into something better. When a well-thought plan begins to unravel, our first response can be to grab all the frayed ends and try to put them back together again. I want to...
I write the following knowing the unease it can create, especially since it is so easy to put our hope in a political process. The Lord gave me an image of Him riding in Washington, DC atop a donkey. The image of a donkey represents the Democrat Party in the United...
Like a bully who enters a room and seems to tower over everyone with a threatening demeanor, so it is when hell walks into your life and tries to intimidate you. The bully’s tactics can work if we face the battle in our own strength. There is always a...
Over the years, friends have given me unique gifts from antiquity. The coin and the frame in which it is displayed sit atop a bookshelf in our living room. There have been times in the last 20 years when I stopped to look at the coin and wondered through whose hands...
Yesterday, I saw in my spirit an image I think might describe some of what is taking place in the Church. I saw the image of a single cell like I was viewing it under the intense magnification of a microscope at the moment the cell first divided and became two cells....
Everyone will make a passage across what is called “transitional space” several times in a lifetime. Transitional space is created whenever we move between seasons of life, relationships or life-assignments. Transitional space requires vigilance because the movement...
Going deeper is the greater progress. Many times we are told that a life of constant forward motion and ascent will lead us to success. That constant need to move forward and upward can be seen as progress to the uninitiated, but in reality, these activities produce...
As I write this it is almost 4:00 in the morning and the pre-dawn temperature is 62 degrees with a forecasted daytime high of 88. In the middle of winter, a daytime temperature of 62 would be a record-setting heat wave. When I saw the warm temperature reading and...
If you have experienced a frustrating and painful outcome from a decision or an action made outside your control and now you want to walk away, make sure you are walking into the arms of Jesus, not into the arms of bitterness and anger. Be wise in the choices you make...